For me it was always the best to modify the way how Java loads the library.
Usually you call System.loadLibrary("mylib");
which searches the library on the library path.
IMHO it is much better loading the library using it's absolute path. This allows you to implement a custom search logic in your program:
// Extends the name to mylib.so or mylib.dll
mylibname = System.mapLibraryName("mylib");
// Load the library via its absolute path
System.load(new File(path, mylibname).getAbsolutePath());
Note that each library can only be loaded once, therefore if you load the library as shown above, calls of System.loadLibrary("mylib");
afterwards will be ignored as the library is already loaded.